HSBC Lions / 汇丰铜狮

Overview

The HSBC lions / 汇丰铜狮 are paired reclining male-lion sculptures first commissioned for HSBC’s Shanghai headquarters and later copied for Hong Kong and other HSBC buildings.

Current Profile

Vol.278 presents the lions as a corporate image that escaped its original setting. The Shanghai pair arrived in 1923 and were named Stephen and Stitt after HSBC managers; a segmented cast produced a related Hong Kong pair in 1935. Wartime removal, postwar recovery, preservation of the Shanghai originals, later replicas, banknote circulation, and feng-shui-inflected installation ceremonies turned one architectural commission into a recognizable global emblem.

The afterlife is not simple continuity. Commercial stone copies often change material, orientation, sex attribution, and meaning. A pair of reclining male lions can become a supposed male-female “招财/守财” set sold as a generic bank ornament, showing how brand recognition can persist while historical attribution disappears.

Key Characteristics

• Originated as two reclining male bronze lions for HSBC’s 1923 Shanghai headquarters.
• The open- and closed-mouth figures were named Stephen and Stitt and positioned facing one another rather than frontally guarding a doorway.
• The 1935 Hong Kong pair and later global versions made replication part of HSBC’s corporate visual system.
• Banknote imagery expanded recognition beyond visitors to bank buildings.
• Commercial copies frequently alter pose, placement, gender story, material, and auspicious explanation.

Evidence

Commission and replication

• Vol.278 dates the Shanghai commission to the early 1920s, distinguishes the later Hong Kong cast, and describes their different wartime preservation histories.

Corporate circulation

• Vol.278 connects the lions to HSBC buildings, Hong Kong banknotes, installation rituals, and a corporate reading of the closed-mouth Stitt as stable.

Commercial reinterpretation

• Vol.278 reports “港币狮” and “汇丰狮” as trade names and documents copies that abandon the original orientation or invent male-female and wealth-attraction meanings.

Qualifications

The source is a structured podcast summary, not a catalogue raisonné or archival study. Exact design influence, casting details, naming history, banknote chronology, ritual practice, copy lineage, and workshop geography remain source-scoped. Similar reclining lions at another bank are evidence of resemblance, not proof of direct authorization by HSBC.

What Changed

• Established the original Shanghai commission and later Hong Kong/global replication as one connected corporate-symbol history.
• Distinguished the HSBC pair from conventional Chinese guardian-lion pose and gender conventions.
• Added banknotes, commercial copying, and auspicious reinterpretation as mechanisms of diffusion.

Relationships

• HSBC - institution that commissioned and propagated the lions as a corporate emblem.
• 浦发银行 - current user of the former Shanghai HSBC building, where replicas stand because the originals are protected.
• Shanghai Foreign Banks - historical financial geography in which the first pair signaled prestige and institutional power.
• Bank Animal Symbolism / 银行动物象征 - broader mechanism through which animal sculpture communicates trust, authority, and auspicious meaning.
• Invented Tradition - framework for understanding later copies presented as customary bank décor.